Threat level 'orange' put more cops on the road, more DUIs behind bars

Last week's heightened anti-terrorism alert may have produced an unexpected fringe benefit in California: a sharp increase in the arrest of suspected drunken drivers over the Memorial Day weekend.

The 30 percent increase in DUI arrests locally and 12 percent increase statewide comes as both the California Highway Patrol and Mothers Against Drunk Driving say a dangerous complacency toward drinking and driving might be taking hold among motorists.

When the Department of Homeland Security raised the terrorism threat level May 21 from "yellow" to "orange," the CHP put its officers on 12-hour shifts instead of the usual eight-hour workdays. Because the longer shifts result in overlapping schedules, more officers are on the road at a given time.

The CHP stuck to the 12-hour schedule throughout the three-day holiday weekend, which ended at midnight Monday.

"The swing and the graveyard shifts are picking up more drunks," said CHP Sgt. Wayne Zeise.

DUI arrests for the weekend reached nearly 1,700 in California after peaking below the 1,500 level the previous two years, said CHP spokesman Steve Kohler.

In the CHP's Border Division, which includes most of San Diego and Imperial counties and a chunk of southern Orange County, officers made 300 DUI arrests, compared with 211 last year.

But officials say the increase in CHP officers is not the only reason the number of DUI arrests was up this Memorial Day weekend.

"More people are drinking and driving," said Bonnie Helander, executive director of the San Diego chapter of MADD. "The death and injury rate that had been steadily declining has now leveled off, and we're actually starting to see an increase."

There was a more than 50 percent increase in DUI-related fatalities statewide during the holiday – 40 last year, 63 last weekend. (Those figures include fatalities that occurred outside the CHP's jurisdiction.)

Too many people, Helander said, are getting comfortable with the idea of having a couple of drinks and getting behind the wheel.

Helander said that after years of lower DUI arrest and fatality rates, following public awareness campaigns and get-tough measures by law enforcement, many people have the false impression that drinking and driving are no longer a problem.

"The public thinks the problem's been solved. The media thinks it's an old story," she said. "We're battling complacency."

MADD says nearly 18,000 people were killed in DUI-related crashes last year, an increase of about 500 – or nearly 3 percent – over the year before.

On average, about 49 people a day are killed in alcohol-related crashes, MADD says.

"If arrests are increasing, we've got a problem all across the board," Helander said. "A drunk driver can drive under the influence 200 times before he's arrested."